Pork Shortage in China Leads to Soaring Prices, Rush to Import

Too few pigs are headed to markets in pork-loving China, leading to soaring domestic prices and a rush of pork imports from the U.S. and elsewhere to fill the gap. As WSJ's Lucy Craymer reports:

Prices of the key ingredient in everything from lunchtime pork dumplings to fiery Sichuan-style mapo tofu have risen 48% in China in the last year. The average price of pork in the week ended April 2 was 25.67 yuan a kilogram (roughly $1.80 a pound), up from 17.35 yuan a kilogram a year earlier, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture.

High pork prices were felt in the latest inflation data out of China on Monday. Consumer prices were up 2.3% in March from a year earlier, steady from the previous month. The food-price component of the index was up 7.6% in March, led by higher pork and vegetable prices. Pork continues to hold a high weighting—around 3%, according to Rabobank—in the price of the basket of goods and services that is used to calculate the consumer-price index.

Prices of pork in China, the world’s largest pork consumer, are higher than elsewhere in the world. For example, pork in Europe sells on average for 65 U.S. cents a pound.